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Cyclists, police chief spar on road

A close call involving the Rye police chief and a group of hard-riding cyclists on the Seacoast was caught on video.

Video shows Police Chief Kevin Walsh in a heart-stopping near-hit on Ocean Boulevard with cyclists flying by him at nearly 30 miles per hour.

The video of the incident was apparently shot and posted online by one of the riders. Now Walsh and the biking group are pointing fingers of blame.

Walsh calls the cycling group an accident waiting to happen, but many in the group believe the chief should not have been trying to stop them by standing in the bike lane.

Walsh said he was trying to stop a group of more than a dozen cyclists after receiving reports they were impeding traffic. He began shouting and waving his arms when he realized the pace setters in the front did not see him.

"They weren't stopping, because what they're doing is they're doing competitive racing. They all had their heads down and they were pushing themselves like somebody would do when they're doing a competitive sporting event," said Walsh.

Walsh said after the near accident, the riders didn't even slow down. He returned to his cruiser, caught up to the pack and detained the group in a turnout.

Video captured by the handlebar cam of one of the cyclists shows the stop, raised voices are clearly audible.

"I wasn't happy -- they weren't happy," said Walsh.

Kevin Tonkin belongs to the cycling group but was not among the lead pack of riders that evening. After watching the video he said the chief is at fault.

"What I saw was the wrong way to pull over a motor vehicle. We are on the roads as a motor vehicle, and unfortunately it's a large entity, but we still have the same rights as a motor vehicle," said Tonkin.

Tonkin also said the group was not racing.

"It's not racing if there's no prize or there's no leader or no winner -- it's pushing each other to perform your best, and we're going the speed limit," he said.

If the cyclists committed a violation, Tonkin said Walsh should have written citations. Now that he has this video, Walsh said he probably will.

"The video definitely shows that under RSA 265:144-5 they did not ride single and they were impeding the flow of traffic by being out in the travel lane, Walsh said.

Tonkin said the riding group has been doing this for 17 years and has encountered problems with Rye police in the past.

Still, he said after that close call with Walsh, that pack of cyclists should have stopped right away.

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